Sandtrooper Costume Themed Display

A custom mannequin and display for a Star Wars Sandtrooper costume for a video game company’s offices.

Working for an official video game company, we created a number of displays to help theme their offices. You may have seen the life-sized Guardians of the Galaxy Rocket and Groot statue we created for the same company. For their Sandtrooper costume display, we sourced an accurate replica costume and a very detailed rubber weapon (much like a rubber stunt movie prop) that were brilliantly finished. Of course, a standard retail mannequin wouldn’t quite do the trick here, so we went with something custom. Starting with a “normal” fiberglass form, we created a modified mannequin that would fit the costume (and allow for dressing of the complex armor!). The legs and torso were modified and reinforced with fiberglass, and weight bearing leg was revised to hide a large, heavy duty pipe for a sturdy stance.

The arms were made pose-able with a mix of fiberglass, flexible foam and wire cores. As often happens with a mannequin like this, we use a bit of illusion. A hidden support holds the large blaster in place, and the bendable arms and hands appear to support it.

Once the life-sized statue was done, we started sculpting a rock base to give the display some height and theming. Starting with EPS foam, we created a smooth, stacked appearance based on the rocks of Tatooine, the planet where movie viewers first encountered this incarnation of the Empire’s Storm Troopers. We used several different coating techniques to get a smooth almost slate like finish. We then matched the colors of the base to the colors of the “dust and dirt” on the armor and added layers of weathering and aging to the faux rock.